The Walking Dead: Doing the Right Thing

SPOILER ALERT: This Article will contain spoilers for the Walking Dead game by TellTale Games

Now that the spoiler alert is out of the way. Holy crap what the ‘F’, they were eating him! Now that, thats out of the way. I can’t wait till episode three of this game. I feel like I am watching a movie that I get to decided what happens (to a certain extend of course). TellTale Games has released two videos showing the stats of the choices made by the players of their games, but what was the right choice? are people still acting ‘good’ in the game, or are they doing what needs to be done to survive… apparently, we haven’t seen nothing yet. hit the jump to read on

Most of the choices made in this game are morally ambiguous, more so in episode two. According to the game creators, they feel that more people are making the ‘right’ choices, even it means endangering themselves or others who are part of their group. I’ll be honest I tried to save David, I did, but when it came down to it, I never cut off his leg to help him escape. It wasn’t the fact that I couldn’t do it, I just felt he would be a hazard to the group, because he can’t walk on his own. Medical attention would be needed, possible supplies would have to be gathered. Call me an asshole but, he was better off dead. That being said, I am part of a small 15% group who apparently did the ‘wrong’ thing. Well according to me it was the ‘right’ thing and I stand by it!

Telltale Games senior director of marketing Richard Iggo had this to say:

“Some of the stats we’ve seen coming back from player decisions have created a perception that even in dire times – and when faced with no-win situations where each decision is morally grey – the majority of people will try to do the ‘right’ thing if they can, even if there’s really no ‘right’ decision to be made” ”It’s fascinating because even when we offer players a decision where the apparently darker option might make sense from a purely logical point of view, they’ll often try to choose the ‘higher’ ground at personal cost even if that means being put in danger or having a relationship with another character suffer because of it.” VentureBeat.com

The biggest and possibly the most ‘judging’ decision made in this game was how long you would punch Andy for. Cinematically the scene is very well done. Your interaction begin with you punching Andy in the face, at this point I’m sure most players felt a little bit engaged at how sick these people were. So there you are, Hulk Smashing his face, when the camera cuts out of first person perspective, and you get a shot of you still smashing his face, but you realize people are watching you; with their judging eyes. According to Iggo, most people stop there, myself included. No one wants to look like a monster, especially not in front of Clementine. (even though she is not real, its funny how your emotions surface in a game).

One stat that really surprised me was that 44% of people left the supplies at the end of the episode. I am sorry people, but are you crazy? There are mouths to feed, and it is not like people are giving you all kinds of hand outs. Remember what happened the last time you thought you were getting a hand out? It just happened moments ago, but i digress….

All I can say is that the game has left me wanting. Which is why I will wrap up this article with another quote from Richard Iggo

“In terms of absolute heartbreak in the episodes we’ve seen so far, [Episode 3: Long Road Ahead] takes the crown. You’re really going to have your morals tested right from the opening scenes of the episode, and since the bulk of people who play the game seem to make decisions based on what they would actually do in the situations presented to them, this episode is going to hold up a very dark mirror for a lot of people.”